The arrest produced no sensation, indeed was almost unknown,and scarcely interrupted the course of events. To thedeputation it was formally announced that the queen wouldreceive it.

Accordingly, it was admitted to the presence of Anne, who,silent and lofty as ever, listened to the speeches andcomplaints of the deputies; but when they had finished theirharangues not one of them could say, so calm remained herface, whether or no she had heard them.

On the other hand, Mazarin, present at that audience, heardvery well what those deputies demanded. It was purely andsimply his removal, in terms clear and precise.

The discourse being finished, the queen remained silent.

"Gentlemen," said Mazarin, "I join with you in supplicatingthe queen to put an end to the miseries of her subjects. Ihave done all in my power to ameliorate them and yet thebelief of the public, you say, is that they proceed from me,an unhappy foreigner, who has been unable to please theFrench. Alas! I have never been understood, and no wonder. Isucceeded a man of the most sublime genius that ever upheldthe sceptre of France. The memory of Richelieu annihilatesme. In vain - were I an ambitious man - should I struggleagainst such remembrances as he has left; but that I am notambitious I am going to prove to you. I own myselfconquered. I shall obey the wishes of the people. If Parishas injuries to complain of, who has not some wrongs to beredressed? Paris has been sufficiently punished; enoughblood has flowed, enough misery has humbled a town deprivedof its king and of justice. 'Tis not for me, a privateindividual, to disunite a queen from her kingdom. Since youdemand my resignation, I retire."

"Then," said Aramis, in his neighbor's ear, "the conferencesare over. There is nothing to do but to send MonsieurMazarin to the most distant frontier and to take care thathe does not return even by that, nor any other entrance intoFrance."

"One instant, sir," said the man in a gown, whom headdressed; "a plague on't! how fast you go! one may soon seethat you're a soldier. There's the article of remunerationsand indemnifications to be discussed and set to rights."

"Chancellor," said the queen, turning to Seguier, our oldacquaintance, "you will open the conferences. They can takeplace at Rueil. The cardinal has said several things whichhave agitated me, therefore I will not speak more fully now.As to his going or staying, I feel too much gratitude to thecardinal not to leave him free in all his actions; he shalldo what he wishes to do."

A transient pallor overspread the speaking countenance ofthe prime minister; he looked at the queen with anxiety. Herface was so passionless, that he, as every one else present,was incapable of reading her thoughts.

"But," added the queen, "in awaiting the cardinal's decisionlet there be, if you please, a reference to the king only."

The deputies bowed and left the room.

"What!" exclaimed the queen, when the last of them hadquitted the apartment, "you would yield to these limbs ofthe law - these advocates?"

"To promote your majesty's welfare, madame," repliedMazarin, fixing his penetrating eyes on the queen, "there isno sacrifice that I would not make."

Anne dropped her head and fell into one of those reveries sohabitual with her. A recollection of Athos came into hermind. His fearless deportment, his words, so firm, yetdignified, the shades which by one word he had evoked,recalled to her the past in all its intoxication of poetryand romance, youth, beauty, the eclat of love at twentyyears of age, the bloody death of Buckingham, the only manwhom she had ever really loved, and the heroism of thoseobscure champions who had saved her from the double hatredof Richelieu and the king.

Mazarin looked at her, and whilst she deemed herself aloneand freed from the world of enemies who sought to spy intoher secret thoughts, he read her thoughts in hercountenance, as one sees in a transparent lake clouds pass- reflections, like thoughts, of the heavens.

"Must we, then," asked Anne of Austria, "yield to the storm,buy peace, and patiently and piously await better times?"

Mazarin smiled sarcastically at this speech, which showedthat she had taken the minister's proposal seriously.

Anne's head was bent down - she had not seen the Italian'ssmile; but finding that her question elicited no reply shelooked up.

"Well, you do not answer, cardinal, what do you think aboutit?"

"I am thinking, madame, of the allusion made by thatinsolent gentleman, whom you have caused to be arrested, tothe Duke of Buckingham - to him whom you allowed to beassassinated - to the Duchess de Chevreuse, whom yousuffered to be exiled - to the Duc de Beaufort, whom youimprisoned; but if he made allusion to me it was because heis ignorant of the relation in which I stand to you."

Anne drew up, as she always did, when anything touched herpride. She blushed, and that she might not answer, claspedher beautiful hands till her sharp nails almost piercedthem.

"That man has sagacity, honor and wit, not to mentionlikewise that he is a man of undoubted resolution. You knowsomething about him, do you not, madame? I shall tell him,therefore, and in doing so I shall confer a personal favoron him, how he is mistaken in regard to me. What is proposedto me would be, in fact, almost an abdication, and anabdication requires reflection."

"An abdication?" repeated Anne; "I thought, sir, that it waskings alone who abdicated!"

"Well," replied Mazarin, "and am I not almost a king - king, indeed, of France? Thrown over the foot of the royalbed, my simar, madame, looks not unlike the mantle worn bykings."

This was one of the humiliations which Mazarin made Anneundergo more frequently than any other, and one that bowedher head with shame. Queen Elizabeth and Catherine II. ofRussia are the only two monarchs of their set on record whowere at once sovereigns and lovers. Anne of Austria lookedwith a sort of terror at the threatening aspect of thecardinal - his physiognomy in such moments was notdestitute of a certain grandeur.

"Sir," she replied, "did I not say, and did you not hear mesay to those people, that you should do as you pleased?"

"In that case," said Mazarin, "I think it must please mebest to remain; not only on account of my own interest, butfor your safety."

"Remain, then, sir; nothing can be more agreeable to me;only do not allow me to be insulted."

"You are referring to the demands of the rebels and to thetone in which they stated them? Patience! They have selecteda field of battle on which I am an abler general than they- that of a conference. No, we shall beat them by merelytemporizing. They want food already. They will be ten timesworse off in a week."

"Ah, yes! Good heavens! I know it will end in that way; butit is not they who taunt me with the most woundingreproaches, but - - "

"I understand; you mean to allude to the recollectionsperpetually revived by these three gentlemen. However, wehave them safe in prison, and they are just sufficientlyculpable for us to keep them in prison as long as we find itconvenient. One only is still not in our power and bravesus. But, devil take him! we shall soon succeed in sendinghim to join his boon companions. We have accomplished moredifficult things than that. In the first place I have as aprecaution shut up at Rueil, near me, under my own eyes,within reach of my hand, the two most intractable ones.To-day the third will be there also."

"As long as they are in prison all will be well," said Anne,"but one of these days they will get out."

"Yes, if your majesty releases them."

"Ah!" exclaimed Anne, following the train of her ownthoughts on such occasions, "one regrets Paris!"

"Why so?"

"On account of the Bastile, sir, which is so strong and sosecure."

"Madame, these conferences will bring us peace; when we havepeace we shall regain Paris; with Paris, the Bastile, andour four bullies shall rot therein."

Anne frowned slightly when Mazarin, in taking leave, kissedher hand.

Mazarin, after this half humble, half gallant attention,went away. Anne followed him with her eyes, and as hewithdrew, at every step he took, a disdainful smile was seenplaying, then gradually burst upon her lips.

"I once," she said, "despised the love of a cardinal whonever said `I shall do,' but, `I have done so and so.' Thatman knew of retreats more secure than Rueil, darker and moresilent even than the Bastile. Degenerate world!"